Quality of service (QOS) technology enables a networking device, such as a router, switch, server, workstation, gateway, or personal computer to reserve bandwidth on a network in order to ensure that an appropriately configured pathway is created between it and one or more remote senders on the network. An example of a protocol that is frequently used in creation of QOS messages is the reservation protocol, or RSVP. When attempting to send data over a network, a sending device using RSVP transmits a path message along the intended route. The recipient device respond by transmitting a reservation message back along the route. The reservation message contains information as to the bandwidth and reliability of service required by the recipient device for receipt of the data. The devices along the intended path may then respond by informing the recipient device whether the requesting networking resources are available. RSVP may be extended to provide policy control for traffic on a local area network (LAN) through the placement of a designated subnet bandwidth manager (DSBM) at various segments of the LAN. A DSBM communicates with other network devices using the subnet bandwidth SBM protocol as an extension to the RSVP protocol.
Like any network communication, QOS messages sometimes contain errors or are otherwise invalid. An invalid or unexpected QOS message usually causes one or more of the devices along its path to create an error message and send the error message back to the originator. Sometimes, however, an invalid or unexpected QOS message causes one or more devices along its path to drop the message, enter an invalid state, or crash completely. Thus, to adequately test the ability of a network device to handle an invalid QOS message, it is desirable to subject the device to a wide variety of message types and formats, including invalid messages. Currently, systems that create QOS messages are only capable of creating a small portion of the total range of QOS message formats that are available, and are not designed to intentionally create invalid messages. Furthermore, current systems do not allow a user, such as a test engineer, to interact with a user interface that allows each QOS message to be customized. These limitations make it very difficult to subject a network to the full range of QOS message formats and invalid conditions for testing purposes. Thus, it can be seen that there is a need for a novel method and system for creating a quality of service message.